Council members express 'deep sympathy' over attack, stress that states must ensure that measures are taken to combat terrorism; Iran not mentioned in the statement.

The UN Security Council condemned Thursday in "the strongest terms" the terrorist attack against the bus with Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria.

In a press statement issued by Security Council President Nestor Osorio (Colombia), council members expressed their “deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the victims of this heinous act and to their families" and reaffirmed that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security."

The Security Council stressed that states must ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism “comply with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law."

Iran, accused by the Israeli authorities as being behind the attack, was not mentioned in the statement. However, Ambassador Chaim Waxman, Charge d’Affaires at the Israeli mission to the UN, wrote Thursday in a letter to the Security Council that the attack was "perpetrated by the Iranian Quds forces and Hezbollah, as part of a gruesome campaign targeting Israelis and Jews around the world."

Waxman also referred to previous attacks and plans to attack Israeli diplomats, including the plot by Hezbollah members uncovered in May by Turkish police to assassinate the Israeli Consul General in Istanbul, and the January arrests of a Hezbollah operative in Thailand, who was sent by Hezbollah to attack Israeli targets and of Iranian citizens in Azerbaijan who were sent by he Iranian Revolutionary Guards to carry out an attack against the Israeli Embassy in Baku.

In February, the wife of an Israeli diplomat is injured when a motorist attaches an explosive device to her car at a traffic light near the Israeli embassy. On the same day, an explosive device was attached to the car of the Israeli Ambassador in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The same month, two men belonging to Quds force, who were preparing attacks against Israeli targets, were apprehended in Thailand. Last month, two Iranians who were planning attacks against Israeli and Western targets were arrested in Kenya. Furthermore, during the first week of July, Cyprus police arrested a Lebanese national who admitted that he was sent by Hezbollah to attack Israeli tourist destinations in the country.

Waxman noted in his dispatch that "explosives specified in the attacks and attempted attacks in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Bangkok and Istanbul were of the same type."

Following the Security Council decision, Waxman said he is satisfied with the condemnation of the attack, and called on the international community "to act in order to thwart the terror activities of Iran against the Israeli citizens."